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“I wouldn’t say I’ve closed the door [on my career], but I’ve got my hand on the door handle. You know it’s been over a year since I’ve fought, and I’ve having a good time with my family raising my kids, which I think is a bigger thing than me competing, making sure my family is raised right. So I’m having a good time at home with the family, and kind of, maybe, lost the desire just a little bit to compete. I’m not retired yet, but it is looking like that’s where I’m going… We have talked and he’s voiced his opinion about me. He just says I’ve got nothing to prove, and for Dana to say that, it means something. I think he’s taking my best interests to heart. I still think he could make some money off me, put me on a card, but he’s looking past the financial side of things, and saying, ‘Hey, you’ve been here for a long time and you’re good to go. You can retire.’ With him talking like a father and not a businessman, it really lets it sink in a little deeper than it would the other way.”

While a guest on today’s “The MMA Hour” former UFC welterweight champion and UFC Hall-Of-Famer, Matt Hughes, tells host, Ariel Helwani that the desire to compete is slowly leaving him and the desire to be a dad and family man is growing stronger.

After a Hall-Of-Fame career and one of the most dominant championship runs in the sports history can anyone really fault Hughes if he decides to call it quits?

I 100% agree with Flyinh Matt Hughes should have retired years ago and most fans (NEWBS MOSTLY) don’t realize he is a fraction of what he use to be. Matt Hughes who i never really even liked because he is your typical a’shole high school bully that gives fatt kids wedges in hal way. But he is one of the true legends of the UFC right up there with Chuck Liddell and he will always have a executive position with the UFC where he will be making more than he was fighting. The man is a competitor who just wanted to keep riding the huge wave of the UFC success that he was a major part of even happening. All you need to do if oyu think I’m full of shit is go back and give yourself a UFC history lesson and watch and see for yourself how dominant Matt hughes was in the early years of UFC. IN FACT IMO he beat a much more dangerous GSP back when GSP use to be a REAL FIGHTER before he was RUINED by GREG “NO ACTION” JACKSON. Matt hughes beat a bad ass GSP. Back in early days UFC matt Hughes IMO would have beaten most of the middleweights also. sucks seing all these guys liek Koscehck making a name off a matt hughes who is a one third the fighter he was before. Matt Hughes would have kicked koschecks ass in his prime. Hughes was a mucm much better MMA wrestler and submission specialist than kosckeck. OLD matt hughes never even bothered messing with strikers and just took them to ground and GNPounded their ass out

Any one of those guys would ruin him at this point… and if he’s going to fight a mid level guy, he might as well retire because it does nothing for him. Dan Hardy’s been talking smack about him and that could be a decent match up, but I don’t even see that one happening because it doesn’t seem like hughes even cares enough to try and shut him up. And I think hardy wins that fight

He should have retired after submitting Almeida.. He would have went out with a 3 fight win streak and went out with submitting a 3rd degree JJ black belt.. But I guess when they call and offer u BJ for a rubber match, its almost like you have to take it..

Good point.he should’ve retired with that 3 fight win streak.serra,renzo,and Ricardo.but he said he wanted that 3rd fight with penn badly.but for a fighter it’s so hard to call it quits.ive never been a huge Matt Hughes fan his fight with sherk was incredible tho,and his trilogy with the king….were great,Matt is a legend and has nothing left to prove.RETIRE.

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